Martha’s Kitchen

Charlie Brown, 33, who lives in Bushmead, makes everything from gluten-free chocolate brownies to giant mallow lollies to traditional celebration cakes.

The mum of two (Martha, 2 and Oscar, 4), has no previous business experience, but the feedback she’s had from her products so far has been fantastic, and she sold out of everything at The Grove Theatre Easter arts and crafts fair.

Charlie said: “I’ve always baked for family and friends as a hobby, then after I had Martha I decided to leave work and be at home with the children. I loved my job but I really wanted to be with them while they are so small so I made the decision to leave.

“I was baking cakes anyway so I thought – I could do something with this. There are lots of cake-makers out there but I wanted to be about homebaking and the best ingredients I can afford.”

Martha’s Kitchen was officially born on New Year’s Day, and Charlie spent January teaching herself how to build a website and setting up the business.

She said: “Working out the website was so difficult but I was so pleased with myself when I’d done it, and then I did a Facebook page and Twitter account too, which are good for getting the message out.”

Treats from Martha’s kitchen are made with quality ingredients, custom made to order with options such as gluten-free.

Charlie said: “There’s more demand for gluten-free products at the moment and the gluten-free brownies are one of my best-sellers. I actually prefer them now to the normal ones.”

In between looking after the children, Charlie spends time developing new recipies and promoting Martha’s Kitchen in the community.

She said: “It’s nice to have something for myself to do. The children are always happy to lick the bowl but I’m not letting them loose in the kitchen yet. With things like decorating the cakes I wait until after they’ve gone to bed so I can really concentrate on the detail.”

Visit http://marthaskitchen.org.uk/ to find out more.